Written Answers Friday 22 August 2008

Scottish Executive

Higher Education

Claire Baker (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of GDP is invested in universities; how much this is in cash terms, broken down by (a) government funding and (b) other funding, and how this compares with other OECD countries.

Fiona Hyslop: There are various methods to calculate what percentage of GDP is invested in universities and in particular how "public" and "private" spending is defined and what is included in the calculation. This means that results may differ and will not be directly comparable with other countries. My officials are in discussions with the Scottish Funding Council and Universities Scotland regarding this matter.

  Using the latest data available, figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) show that higher education institutions (HEIs) in Scotland received monies from all sources totalling £2.26 billion in 2006-07. This was split by government-related funding of £1.47 billion, and other funding of £0.79 billion.

  According to the Office for National Statistics, Scottish GDP (GVA at basic prices) in 2006 totalled £91 billion. Therefore, spending on this basis on Scottish HEIs was 2.50 per cent of GDP.

  OECD data on a comparable basis are not currently available as their method for categorising different types of post-compulsory education is different to that used in Scotland. In addition, the methodology adopted by the OECD is unclear in terms of what they include as investment and how this is split between public and non-public.

  Using the same HESA data, Scotland compares favourably on a UK basis, with England, Wales and Northern Ireland spending less as a proportion of GDP at 1.8 per cent, 2.3 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively. The data show that the comparable UK rate is 1.9 per cent.

Hospital-Acquired Infection

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance has been issued to NHS boards, control of infection teams and tissue-viability staff on contaminants of acute faecal incontinence associated with Clostridium difficile infection.

Nicola Sturgeon: Each NHS board has an infection control manual which contains guidance on the prevention and control of Clostridium difficile. In addition model infection control policies (which cover the management of soiled linen) are available on Health Protection Scotland website at http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk .

Hospital-Acquired Infection

Marlyn Glen (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many recorded cases of Clostridium difficile there have been in (a) NHS Tayside and (b) total in the latest available 12 month period, broken down into people aged (a) two to 44, (b) 45 to 64, (c) 65 to 74 and (d) 75 and over.

Nicola Sturgeon: Mandatory surveillance on the total number of cases of Clostridium difficile reported by NHS board was introduced in September 2006. This information is collected by Health Protection Scotland (HPS) and is published in quarterly reports on their website. HPS does not hold processed (i.e. de-duplicated) and reviewed data for patients below 65 years old. Data are not held by the requested age groups.

  Information for NHS boards since September 2006, for patients over 65, is in the following table:

  

 
 October 2006 - December 2006
 January 2007 - March 2007
 April 2007 - June 2007
 July 2007 -September 2007
 October 2007 - December 2007
 January 2008 - March 2008


 Total number of cases in Scotland
 1,213
 1,775
 1,588
 1,459
 1,608
 1,861



  Since the beginning of the mandatory surveillance programme for Clostridium Difficile Associated Disease (CDAD) in Scotland started in October 2006, a total of 999 cases of CDAD have been reported in NHS Tayside in those aged 65 years and over.

  During the past 12 months (from July 2007-June 2008), a total of 550 cases of CDAD have been reported.

  All cases, except for those in the most recent quarter (from Apr 2008-June 2008) have been reviewed and confirmed by the local laboratories in NHS Tayside.

  

 
July 2007  September 2007
October 2007  December 2007
January 2008  March 2008
April 2008  June 2008


 Cases of CDAD aged 65 and over
 131
 135
 139
 145*



  Note: *Data not reviewed yet.

NHS Hospitals

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospitals still have externally-provided cleaning services.

Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-15208 on 22 August 2008. There are six hospitals and one NHS board with outsourced or PFI contract cleaning services.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

NHS Hospitals

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many cleaning contracts with private sector organisations are operational in hospitals and when these contracts are due to be renewed.

Nicola Sturgeon: The hospitals and NHS board with outsourced or PFI cleaning contracts are as follows:

  NHS Ayrshire and Arran – East Ayrshire Community Hospital. PFI contract over 25 years benchmarked on a five-yearly basis.

  NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde – Drumchapel. Rolling contract requiring three months notice.

  Parts of the Southern General Hospital

  Langlands Building with a 10 year contract with two years to run before best value/market test.

  Mearnskirk contract currently under renegotiation.

  NHS Highland – New Craigs Hospital, Inverness. PFI contract due for benchmarking within next 12 months.

  NHS Lanarkshire – Hairmyres Hospital. PFI contract for thirty years commencing March 2001.

  Wishaw Hospital. PFI contract for thirty years commencing June 1998.

  NHS Lothian – Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. PFI contract, benchmarking at present and again in five years.

  Ellensglen House – PFI to be market tested in 2008.

  Ferryfield House – PFI to be market tested in four years time.

  Tippethill – PFI to be market tested in five years time.

  NHS Shetland – Contract awarded for five years in 2007.

National Health Service

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it accepts the target in the Wanless Report, Securing Our Future Health: Taking a Long-Term View , of 3 to 4% of NHS expenditure as necessary to meet fully future information management and technology requirements in the NHS.

Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Government has not set a specific target for IM&T expenditure but has committed to fund future growth in eHealth in the Strategic Spending Review. The national eHealth budget will progressively increase from under £40 million in 2005-06 to a forecast £140 million in 2010-11. This does not take into account NHS board expenditure on IM&T which is in addition to this budget.

National Health Service

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether NHS Fife and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are fully signed up to the eProcurement Scotland service.

Nicola Sturgeon: NHS Fife are not currently signed up to the eProcurement Scotland. However, they do have a local solution for automating procurement transactions, which is extensively deployed.

  NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are users of eProcurement Scotland. However, the full implementation is still to be rolled-out.

National Health Service

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the uptake of Scottish Care Information SCI Store remains optional; which NHS boards have taken up SCI Store and when they did so, and, for those that operate separate systems, how many of those systems are fully compatible and integrated with SCI Store.

Nicola Sturgeon: The functionality of SCI store has an important role in the eHealth strategy. SCI Store is a key product in the national eHealth Strategy. All territorial NHS boards and the Golden Jubilee National Hospital have implemented SCI Store. Implementation started in the lead board in 2001; the last board to implement did so from 2006. One board, NHS Tayside, has a compatible system to SCI store with integration links

National Health Service

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the outturn was in revenue and capital expenditure against budget for information management and technology in the NHS in (a) 2005-06, (b) 2006-07 and (c) 2007-08.

Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Government did not centrally collate this information in 2005-06. In 2006-07, the Scottish Government conducted a national IM&T expenditure survey. Outturn expenditure across NHS Scotland was £166 million revenue and £61 million capital. Information on outturn against budget was not centrally collated. A 2007-08 expenditure survey has not yet been conducted.

National Health Service

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made with Scottish Care Information SCI Index.

Nicola Sturgeon: SCI Index is a working title for a project to replace the Community Health Index (CHI) technical infrastructure and improve the patient identification service. The eHealth strategy 2008-11, launched in June 2008, identifies the replacement of the CHI technology as a priority over the next three years. Work to date has been in the area of defining functional requirements and examining technical options. It is expected that the next stage of development will be commissioned by the end of 2008.

National Health Service

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what national information management and technology projects it has underway; what the target completion dates are, and what performance indicators (a) have and (b) have not been met for each project.

Nicola Sturgeon: National information management and technology projects now underway are as listed in the eHealth Strategy of June 2008 under "Significant procurements or developments" on page 23. These are listed below with the target completion dates that were stated in the strategy:

  - Modernise the national CHI index (end 2009)

  - Procurement of Patient Management System (contract in place spring 2009, roll-out thereafter, live in three NHS Boards by 2011)

  - Procurement of identity management and Single Sign-on (contract in place spring 2009, roll-out thereafter, live in three NHS boards by 2011)

  - Managed transition from GPASS (contract in place summer 2009, roll-out thereafter with a date to be agreed for migration of last GPASS practice)

  - Complete the business case and take decisions around the proposed national HR system (by September 2008).

  Of these, all are on track to deliver by the stated dates with the exception of "proposed national HR system" where it has been decided that end 2008 is a more appropriate target date.

  Further performance indicators relate to project disciplines such as governance arrangements and quality assurance measures being established within each project. All the above projects are currently satisfying these disciplines.

National Health Service

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive which NHS boards (a) have and (b) have not adopted the national information management and technology (IMT) system for accident and emergency and, for those which have not, whether their systems are fully compatible with the national IMT system.

Nicola Sturgeon: The EDIS system is a nationally procured system which is available to all boards. The boards currently using the accident and emergency (A&E) system (EDIS) are:

  Borders Dumfries and Galloway Forth Valley Grampian Greater Glasgow (North and Clyde) Highland Lanarkshire Shetland Western Isles

  The following NHS boards use an alternative A&E system:

  Tayside uses Ascribe which has the same base functionality as EDIS and is integrated with local hospital systems and the SCI Store.

  Ayrshire and Arran uses Ascribe and are currently upgrading sites. The new system will have links to SCI Store for patient demographics and results.

  Fife uses Oasis which meets the core requirements of the national system and is fully integrated with local systems.

  Greater Glasgow (Yorkhill, Southern General, Victoria) uses HIS Meditech which has the same base functionality as EDIS and is integrated with local hospital systems and the SCI Store.

  Lothian uses a module of its Patient Management System (Trak Health) which is fully integrated with Lothian applications at all sites.

  Orkney is planning to use Adastra’s out-of-hours system to support A&E activity.

National Health Service

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of GPs use the Gpass primary care information technology system and what other systems are approved for use.

Nicola Sturgeon: 64% of GPs (68% of GP practices) currently use Gpass. Other systems that are approved for use are: InPS (Vision 3), EMIS (PCS) and Ascribe. Over 1,000 GPs (180 GP practices) have moved away from Gpass to a third party system over the last three years and a number of other practices have flagged their desire to move from Gpass.

National Health Service

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether all information management and technology systems approved for use in primary care are compatible with (a) out-of-hours service data systems, including NHS24, (b) accident and emergency data systems, (c) Scottish Care Information SCI Store, SCI Gateway and SCI Diabetes and (d) ePharmacy.

Nicola Sturgeon: All GP IM&T Clinical systems operating in NHS Scotland need to be compliant with the Scottish Enhanced Functionality (SEF) requirements. All GP IM&T Clinical systems are compatible with the Emergency Care Summary (ECS) and send extracts of information on a daily basis.

  (a) Out-of-hours (OOH) service data systems, including NHS24.

  Links are in place between both the OOH and NHS24 systems and ECS to ensure the information is directly available to those users.

  (b) Accident and emergency data systems.

  Links are in place between accident and emergency systems and ECS to ensure the information is available to those users.

  (c) Scottish Care Information.

  (i) SCI Store - all GP IM&T Clinical systems are compatible with SCI Store

  (ii) SCI Gateway - all GP IM&T Clinical systems are compatible with SCI Gateway

  (iii) SCI Diabetes - all GP IM&T Clinical systems are compatible with SCI-DC and send diabetes information on a daily basis. Work is progressing to allow information to be passed back from SCI-DC to GP IM&T Clinical systems to facilitate the transfer of diabetic information from Acute to Primary Care services.

  (d) ePharmacy.

  All GP IM&T Clinical systems are compatible with the ePharmacy Acute Medication Services (AMS) and work is underway to complete rollout across all GP practices.

  All GP IM&T Clinical systems are currently completing development stages to be able to demonstrate compatibility for the forthcoming ePharmacy Chronic Medication Service.

National Health Service

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made with the NHS national screening and surveillance information management and technology projects.

Nicola Sturgeon: The national software to support cervical screening (the Scottish Cervical call recall system, SCCRS) was implemented 29 May 2007. The national software to support screening of diabetic retinopathy (diabetic retinopathy system, DRS) was implemented in all NHS boards in 2006-07. The national software to support bowel screening (bowel screening system, BoSS) was implemented 4 June 2007.

  In addition to these new systems, there are other long established national IT systems supporting other screening programmes such as breast screening, and newborn and pregnancy screening which are updated as required.

Scottish Government Buildings

John Lamont (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has plans to expand the use of solar power for government buildings.

John Swinney: The Scottish Government is currently participating in the latest phase of the Carbon Management Programme, which will identify the most appropriate low carbon technologies that can be introduced to reduce carbon emissions relative to our building operations. This work will inform our future plans in the core buildings of the Scottish Government estate. Information in respect of non-departmental public bodies, agencies and other associated bodies is not held centrally.

Correction

The reply to question S3W-13077 which was originally answered on 27 May 2008, has been corrected: see page 3969 or http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/pqa/wa-08/wa0818.